Joe Paterno's long careerFormer Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, 85, died on Jan. 22. A little more than a week after getting his record-setting 409th win, his storied, 46-year career underwent a stark revision -- tarnished by a child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State involving a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky.

By Scott Boeck and Katharine Lackey, USA TODAY

Source: Penn State athletics

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Penn State pays tribute to Joe Paterno at memorial service

By Erik Brady, USA TODAY

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That last thought brought thunderous applause when it was voiced by Phil Knight, chairman of Nike, who said Paterno was his hero and had never let him down, even if conventional wisdom is that Paterno did not act strongly enough when he learned of child sexual abuse allegations against former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

"It turns out (Paterno) gave full disclosure to his superiors, information that went up the chain to the head of the campus police and the president of the school," Knight said. "The matter was in the hands of a world-class university and a president with an outstanding national reputation.

"Whatever the details of the (school's) investigation are, this much is clear to me, if there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation, not in Joe Paterno …" and the last words of that sentence trailed off into 52 seconds of sustained applause.

Paterno's wife Sue and his children and other family members stood and cheered at this, as did nearly all of the roughly 12,000 who gathered in the basketball arena to honor Paterno, 85, who died Sunday less than three months after he was fired by the Penn State board of trustees.

"And yet for his actions, he was excoriated by the media and fired over the telephone by his university," Knight said. "Yet, in all of his subsequent appearances in the press and on TV and interacting with students and conversing with hospital personnel … every word and every bit of his body language conveyed a single message: We Are Penn State!"

That brought another standing ovation, and then Knight said, "I leave you with this question: Who is the real trustee of Penn State University?"

That riveting sequence was a highlight of the nearly 2½-hour event called simply "A Memorial for Joe." The service came after two days of public viewing that was followed by a private funeral service and a processional through Penn State's campus Wednesday.

Four mini-movies played on video boards and showed a montage of football and family moments, calling to mind great victories and tender moments, the rolled-up pant legs and coke-bottle glasses.

Paterno's family, greeted warmly when they walked out at the event's start, sat in front-row seats on the floor. Six former players, each representing a decade, sat on the stage, a who's who of Penn State football who told stories in turn about their old coach.

"Rest in peace, coach, we'll take it from here," said Charlie Pittman, who represented the 1960s.

"No one individual has ever done more for a university anywhere in the country than what Joe Paterno did for this school," said Todd Blackledge, who represented the 1980s.

The last speaker, Paterno's son Jay, said he is proud that his driver's license says he is Joseph Vincent Paterno Jr. Jay's rousing eulogy, of memories on the field and off, lasted more than 26 minutes, and near the end he asked everyone in the arena to stand and hold hands and say the Our Father.

Then he told what he whispered in his father's ear on his deathbed Sunday morning: "Dad, you won. You did all you could do. You've done enough. We all love you. You won, you can go home now."

A lone trumpeter in Penn State band uniform played a mournful version of the school fight song, and the memorial ended with chants of "We are Penn State."